Gas prices shot up 24 cents a gallon in July from year ago

Average gasoline prices jumped 24 cents more a gallon in July in Broward and Miami-Dade counties than it did a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Gas was an average $3.690 a gallon in the two counties in July. A year ago at the same time, average prices were at $3.448, the federal agency reported.

Advertisement

Gas prices have since gone down this month and a regular gallon of gas averaged $3.59 in Broward and $3.63 in Palm Beach County, according to this week's report from the travel group, AAA.

Last month's higher prices at the pump in South Florida was seen all over the South and helped raise the region's inflation rate to 2.2 percent from a year ago, according to the BLS.

The agency's Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the South was actually higher than the national 2 percent increase. Overall, inflation is still moderate but was running higher in the South and, indeed, the rest of the country in the summer than it did in the spring.